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Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

Is it ever okay to go through your partners phone?

87 replies

Dakota89 · 28/07/2019 18:55

Just looking for different opinions, I've wondered this as my partner has seemed very off lately. Hasnt seemed himself for a few months very distant doesnt seem to want to spend much time together and isnt affectionate. It has crossed my mind that he may well be talking to someone else but obviously he says he isnt and its left as that. Now would you or have you ever gone through a partners phone? I've been tempted to I wont lie but at the same time I would feel pretty crap if I did.

OP posts:
Mrskeats · 30/07/2019 13:16

I know dakota
Believe me I have not been immune. It's depressing.

hellsbellsmelons · 30/07/2019 13:31

I found most the information I needed on my ExP iPad.
It was synced to his phone so could see what he was up to as it was happening.
Does he have a tablet linked to his phone at all?

FelixFelicis6 · 30/07/2019 13:34

I would definitely be looking. It seems classic textbook cheating. Either way I would be looking to end things, life is too short to continue how you are Flowers

Worriedandconfused2 · 30/07/2019 15:10

If I hadn't looked at DH's phone when I started to have suspicions, I would have been left completely blindsided when he left me and our DD two months ago for his ex who he was messaging at first in a chatty way and then very explicitly. I'm not proud of myself that I did it but the only thing I would change is his cheating not my snooping. If he hadn't rekindled things with his ex last year I don't think I'd have ever felt driven to check hs phone because it was the first time I did it in 10 years of marriage.

Dakota89 · 30/07/2019 15:19

@hellsbellsmelons He doesnt have an iPad and to be honest he isnt very tech smart so wouldn't probably even know how to hide anything. I just need to find the right time if not suspicion continues ( which I know it will ) the only thing I noticed a few months back when he did let me use his phone as mine had run out of battery as that he has been using the private tabs on Google..

OP posts:
Dakota89 · 30/07/2019 16:01

@Worriedandconfused2 I am sorry to hear that, it's crazy how often this seems to happen and how people seem to rather hide it than just be honest and end a relationship. Either way it hurts but cheating can do so much damage to a person.

OP posts:
NoCauseRebel · 30/07/2019 16:25

I am always Hmm at the people who say that you should just ask to check his phone and the reaction will tell you everything. Essentially if your partner confronted you and said they wanted to check your phone, would you really just hand it over? Or would you perhaps be outraged/hurt that your partner had so little trust in you that they felt that they had no option but to demand to see your phone?

I can tell you from personal experience that that kind of demand becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. My eXH used to just pick up my phone and go through it whenever he fancied. There was nothing on it but he felt he had the right to do so even though it was a one way street iyswim - I didn’t have the same access to his phone.

I had nothing to hide but the mere assumption that I was hiding something led me to change my passcode and my passwords to social media after I discovered that he was snooping on those as well and had set them up on his own phone to see what i was doing all of the time.

He put keyloggers on my computer, bugged the house, checked up on me using find my iPhone and then tried to gaslight me by telling me that I’d been seen out with aa man (I was with one actually, a male friend and he knew I was out with him,)

I changed all my passwords etc not because I had anything to hide, but because he clearly didn’t trust me and thought that he had the right to snoop as and when until he found proof of something.

He didn’t find anything on my phone and social media which is why he became more and more desperate. And that’s the danger. If you find nothing on your partner’s phone will you be satisfied? Or will you need to take the next step? Bug the car? Hire a private investigator? Where does it stop?

So no, the talk that someone would just hand their phone over purely because their partner asks for it is bollocks.

If the trust has gone, then the relationship is over.

Scorpiovenus · 30/07/2019 16:32

no harm in it, stupid invisible rule if you suspect then look. If he has nothing to hide no different then picking his paper up if he leaves the room for a min. Id have a discussion after if caught but end of the day if you suspect him then you deserve to know the truth.

NoCauseRebel · 30/07/2019 16:53

And again, what if the phone shows nothing? Is trust instantly restored?

Bearing in mind that we see threads on here all the time from posters saying that they have checked their partner’s phone and found nothing, and the response is usually to bide their time because “he’ll slip up sooner or later,”

JustTurtlesAllTheWayDown · 30/07/2019 20:40

Bearing in mind that we see threads on here all the time from posters saying that theyhavechecked their partner’s phone and found nothing, and the response is usually to bide their time because “he’ll slip up sooner or later,”

We also have threads all the time where something was found and those are probably in the majority. I don't think people understand how soul destroying and confusing it is to have someone you love lie to you.
Men having affairs or using sex workers, then gaslighting to cover it, is really, really common unfortunately.

Having that proof makes a world of difference and often means the difference between staying in a toxic relationship where you've been made to think that you're the problem and breaking free.

user1479305498 · 30/07/2019 20:58

I totally agree JustTurtles, I haven’t left but did make me realise my gut instinct way back when was bang on right, not me just being paranoid and I should have ‘got over’ my fear of looking at his phone at the time.

IamtheOA · 04/08/2019 09:14

I don't think people understand how soul destroying and confusing it is to have someone you love lie to you

@JustTurtlesAllTheWayDown nailed it.

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